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Quetzal Purpose & Leveling - Thoughts or Advice?


DeHammer

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I'll soon be approaching six months playing ARK. Over that time I've learned to appreciate that dinos are really a way to extend your own ability and control. They are essentially tools. As it turns out, one of the dinos I am enjoying the most in the game is the Quetzal. It seems to be a very adaptive 'tool', with a lot of potential for various uses. But I've really only begun to explore some of those uses. I'm currently playing on a private PVE server, but we've had thoughts about starting a server cluster and running other maps and possibly a PvP environment. So I'd like to think about this particular situation mainly from a PVE perspective, but would also be interested in PvP related perspectives as well. 

I've been hunting for a decent Tek Quetzal for some time and finally found this beauty flying around the Viking Bay area of Ragnarok. I solo tamed it in mid-air using a Quetzal trap on the back of another Quetzal. It tamed out to level 269. In the past I've leveled up another Quetzal with a very general increase across HP, Stamina, Weight, and Speed - though I'm not really using it for anything specific yet. Being that you don't come across Tek Quetzals like this very often (lvl 180), I'm holding off on leveling it at all until I know better what purpose it should serve. 

I already have a lower lvl Quetzal for trapping Quetzals. I've got a lower lvl Tek Quetzal that I've pumped up the speed on (300%) basically to serve as my 'prestige' ride ("look what I've got"), as well as an experiment to see what high speed looks & feels like with a Quetzal. I also have a high level regular Quetzal (lvl 145 before taming) that I've leveled very generally between HP, Stamina, Weight, and Speed - but have no assigned purpose for (yet).

From a PVE perspective mainly, I'd like to know what purpose would you assign such a rare high level Tek Quetzal to, and how would you level it? 

 

 

Lvl180 Tek Quetzal.jpg

Bella_02.jpg

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I haven't really done any exploring of 'weight' yet and don't yet have a 'heavy lifter' Quetzal. But I can see the purpose of having something to carry larger (or several larger) dinos across a map... just no idea how much 'weight' stat needs to be to satisfy that purpose effectively. 

Can/should such a high level Tek Quetzal be leveled in such a way as to serve multiple purposes well? Such as heavy lifting and carrying around resource gathering dinos? (weight, speed)

Part of my thinking on this is that if/when we transfer maps, I think there's a max dino upload limit, and I'm probably only going to want to take a single Quetzal with me. So maybe I should level this one out to be that general purpose "I do it all" Quetzal? 

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Holy fk bud, that is a really nice stamina roll! Wow!!

As for purpose, quetzels are very useful in many situations. For PVP they are very important in today's meta. They are great for picking up enemy players and dinos and dragging them behind your lines, lifting your own soakers to deal with high-up turrets, and more. There is also the whole hatchframe quetzel thing, but I won't get into that (google it if you want). For a PVP quetz you want all HP.


For PVE they are great for farming and for weight. We use them to move loot around and carry dinos. For this case you want to level all weight.

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6 minutes ago, jansenv said:

Holy fk bud, that is a really nice stamina roll! Wow!!

As for purpose, quetzels are very useful in many situations. For PVP they are very important in today's meta. They are great for picking up enemy players and dinos and dragging them behind your lines, lifting your own soakers to deal with high-up turrets, and more. There is also the whole hatchframe quetzel thing, but I won't get into that (google it if you want). For a PVP quetz you want all HP.


For PVE they are great for farming and for weight. We use them to move loot around and carry dinos. For this case you want to level all weight.

Thanks. Yea, the stamina is pretty much starting out where my other Quetzals took some effort  to level up to. I was thinking it wouldn't need much more stamina, at least for some purposes (maybe another 1k), leaving more points to spend elsewhere. 

I might try to tame another Questzal just to test out the weight stat more, to get a better sense of what sort of weight stat would be handy to have... for instance to transport larger dinos like Rex's.  

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1 hour ago, DeHammer said:

Thanks. Yea, the stamina is pretty much starting out where my other Quetzals took some effort  to level up to. I was thinking it wouldn't need much more stamina, at least for some purposes (maybe another 1k), leaving more points to spend elsewhere. 

I might try to tame another Questzal just to test out the weight stat more, to get a better sense of what sort of weight stat would be handy to have... for instance to transport larger dinos like Rex's.  

That much stam will pretty much get you all the way across Ragnarok fyi. I have one with roughly the same amount just to transport big animals, then another with big weight and about half that stam for moving stuff. I find I don't need any more for general purposes.

But to your question, that's a hangar - breeder queen if I ever saw one. It would suck if you made it utility and lost it to something, like a dino glitching into it so it couldn't escape. And that happens a LOT fyi, so be careful if you do that.

If you get yourself a good opposite-sex tek quetzl though, you've got a sweet breeder line and all the amazing tek quetzls anyone could want. I recommend guarding that jewel :)

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Quetzals are very cool mounts. 

I have used quetzals to kill alpha rex's (Level some hp, rest melee damage)

To haul stuff across the map (Level some stam, rest weight)

As a portable crafting station (grill on platform for prime, pestal/bench for narcotics).

 

Depending on server setting in pvp it can be used to:

 

Drop medium size dinos on enemy bases

Arial assault machine (Turrets on the platform, level loads of HP)

Bullet soakers with high armor saddles (level HP)

Mobile spawn points (Beds built on platform inside metal structure)

Pickup medium/medium large dinos to take home for taming

 

They are really great companions to have in such a game! congrats on your new tame!

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2 hours ago, DeHammer said:

I'll soon be approaching six months playing ARK. Over that time I've learned to appreciate that dinos are really a way to extend your own ability and control. They are essentially tools. As it turns out, one of the dinos I am enjoying the most in the game is the Quetzal. It seems to be a very adaptive 'tool', with a lot of potential for various uses. But I've really only begun to explore some of those uses. I'm currently playing on a private PVE server, but we've had thoughts about starting a server cluster and running other maps and possibly a PvP environment. So I'd like to think about this particular situation mainly from a PVE perspective, but would also be interested in PvP related perspectives as well. 

I've been hunting for a decent Tek Quetzal for some time and finally found this beauty flying around the Viking Bay area of Ragnarok. I solo tamed it in mid-air using a Quetzal trap on the back of another Quetzal. It tamed out to level 269. In the past I've leveled up another Quetzal with a very general increase across HP, Stamina, Weight, and Speed - though I'm not really using it for anything specific yet. Being that you don't come across Tek Quetzals like this very often (lvl 180), I'm holding off on leveling it at all until I know better what purpose it should serve. 

I already have a lower lvl Quetzal for trapping Quetzals. I've got a lower lvl Tek Quetzal that I've pumped up the speed on (300%) basically to serve as my 'prestige' ride ("look what I've got"), as well as an experiment to see what high speed looks & feels like with a Quetzal. I also have a high level regular Quetzal (lvl 145 before taming) that I've leveled very generally between HP, Stamina, Weight, and Speed - but have no assigned purpose for (yet).

From a PVE perspective mainly, I'd like to know what purpose would you assign such a rare high level Tek Quetzal to, and how would you level it? 

 

 

Lvl180 Tek Quetzal.jpg

Bella_02.jpg

I saw you can level it's speed. Level all that speed and also weight of you're on pve.

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1 hour ago, Milsurp said:

But to your question, that's a hangar - breeder queen if I ever saw one. It would suck if you made it utility and lost it to something, like a dino glitching into it so it couldn't escape. And that happens a LOT fyi, so be careful if you do that.

If you get yourself a good opposite-sex tek quetzl though, you've got a sweet breeder line and all the amazing tek quetzls anyone could want. I recommend guarding that jewel :)

You know what.. you're right. As a breeder, she can be of far more benefit long term. With an appropriate mate and protection, she'd be an ongoing source of great utility Quetzals. 

I wish my tribe were more keen on Quetzals. So far I'm the only one who seems to appreciate them. But that might change. The others are all hopped up on Wyverns. They're great for a lot of things, but Wyverns have their limitations as well.

Thanks! 

Edit: So I guess if I make a 'hangar queen', the best points distribution would be to whatever gives her the best chance of surviving... HP and melee damage perhaps? 

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36 minutes ago, DeHammer said:

You know what.. you're right. As a breeder, she can be of far more benefit long term. With an appropriate mate and protection, she'd be an ongoing source of great utility Quetzals. 

I wish my tribe were more keen on Quetzals. So far I'm the only one who seems to appreciate them. But that might change. The others are all hopped up on Wyverns. They're great for a lot of things, but Wyverns have their limitations as well.

Thanks! 

Edit: So I guess if I make a 'hangar queen', the best points distribution would be to whatever gives her the best chance of surviving... HP and melee damage perhaps? 

Honestly dont level melee.. their base damage is pretty low and ive had a few combat quetz before and they dont do well :P 

Since you have classic fliers I would favour speed and weight. Air bus. I love farming with my weight quetz! Throw a mate boosted pair of farmers (anky, theri etc) keep the mate on back and use the other. Mateboost will give higher yields and it works the best (imho) on Canyon tops farming metal.

That stamina is insane mate. Base its more than my 245 hatch line of quetz (iirc they have 10k hp, 3k stam, 3k weight hatch) An imprinted quetz would be miles ahead if you can find another T.Quetz :P 

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1 hour ago, d1nk said:

That stamina is insane mate. Base its more than my 245 hatch line of quetz (iirc they have 10k hp, 3k stam, 3k weight hatch) An imprinted quetz would be miles ahead if you can find another T.Quetz :P 

You only hatch 245 with 3k weight at hatch? That's actually shocking.

@DeHammer

So for PvE purpose, like everyone has said, Quetz's best used for farming. Really group farming though. Karkino's are faster to group farm but a good Quetz should trump it in weight. Check out some farming platform builds on YouTube.

That stam man. I need to go Quetz hunting on my single player game now. 

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1 hour ago, d1nk said:

Honestly dont level melee.. their base damage is pretty low and ive had a few combat quetz before and they dont do well :P 

Since you have classic fliers I would favour speed and weight. Air bus. I love farming with my weight quetz! Throw a mate boosted pair of farmers (anky, theri etc) keep the mate on back and use the other. Mateboost will give higher yields and it works the best (imho) on Canyon tops farming metal.

Yea, thinking about it a bit more, for as long as this one's going to be a 'hangar queen', I think I'll boost her HP some, and save the rest of her leveling if the day comes where I need to put her to work. Meanwhile, I'll keep my eyes peeled for a suitable mate. The advantage of no one else in the tribe being excited about Quetzals is that I get the wild ones all to myself. Besides, I doubt anyone else in my tribe could even do a Quetzal solo tame.  It requires too much planning, patience, and precision for most of them. For me, that sort of tame is a huge part of the fun. 

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43 minutes ago, yekrucifixion187 said:

You only hatch 245 with 3k weight at hatch? That's actually shocking.

@DeHammer

So for PvE purpose, like everyone has said, Quetz's best used for farming. Really group farming though. Karkino's are faster to group farm but a good Quetz should trump it in weight. Check out some farming platform builds on YouTube.

That stam man. I need to go Quetz hunting on my single player game now. 

It might be a server setting honestly, not sure.

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On a pvp server you can use it as a means to drop your gigas onto an enemy base. Usually want your tribe mates riding them. Gigas weigh 1k each on official. So you want 2.5k-3k weight for that type of assault. 

They're right about the breeding. Until you get the best stats from both the male/female onto a new breeding pair. I wouldnt take that one outside the base until then.

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My quetz is mostly a transporter. 6k weight, a plattform saddle with benches on top.

Main tame when it comes to long distance transport or carrying a tame (to be) home. 

Recently we had a rock drake on its back to give it some altitude for starting - just like sailing planes are dragged up... 

Do not underestimate its punch as that bird can take out stuff too. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a bit of an update on my Tek Quetzal 'Bella'. She was a lvl 180 that tamed out to lvl 269. I've been looking for a higher level mate for her, without success so far. 

It occurred to me that I could try to breed her a mate. I have a much lower level male Tek Quetzal. But from what I've learned of breeding, it could be possible to get a male baby Tek Quetzal that inherits all of her stats, or at least the really important ones. So I started collecting fertilized eggs.

What are the odds that the very first egg I hatch hits the jackpot !?!?!

Level 254... all the important stats of Bella, including her 4000 stamina. Looks like it inherited Dad's lower oxygen and torpidity, thus not quite at mom's level. But whoa... I think I hit the jackpot with that egg never the less. 

Romeo.jpg

Romeo_Stats.JPG

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1 hour ago, DeHammer said:

I have a bit of an update on my Tek Quetzal 'Bella'. She was a lvl 180 that tamed out to lvl 269. I've been looking for a higher level mate for her, without success so far. 

It occurred to me that I could try to breed her a mate. I have a much lower level male Tek Quetzal. But from what I've learned of breeding, it could be possible to get a male baby Tek Quetzal that inherits all of her stats, or at least the really important ones. So I started collecting fertilized eggs.

What are the odds that the very first egg I hatch hits the jackpot !?!?!

Level 254... all the important stats of Bella, including her 4000 stamina. Looks like it inherited Dad's lower oxygen and torpidity, thus not quite at mom's level. But whoa... I think I hit the jackpot with that egg never the less. 

Romeo.jpg

Romeo_Stats.JPG

Torpidity is based solely on the dinos lvl at tame/hatch.  It cant inherit it per say as normal stats.  Oxygen is a worthless stat anyways so for long term breeding that romeo is actually more valuable then bella.  As for your chances every stat has a 55:45 ratio favoring the higher level stat, so really you were more lucky with the lower oxygen then the stamina.  Now since your playing with classic mods its possible you may have the classic breeding ratio which is 75:25 in favor of the higher stat.

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On 4/6/2019 at 12:22 PM, d1nk said:

Honestly dont level melee.. their base damage is pretty low and ive had a few combat quetz before and they dont do well :P 

Since you have classic fliers I would favour speed and weight. Air bus. I love farming with my weight quetz! Throw a mate boosted pair of farmers (anky, theri etc) keep the mate on back and use the other. Mateboost will give higher yields and it works the best (imho) on Canyon tops farming metal.

That stamina is insane mate. Base its more than my 245 hatch line of quetz (iirc they have 10k hp, 3k stam, 3k weight hatch) An imprinted quetz would be miles ahead if you can find another T.Quetz :P 

Im not certain but dont quetz actually have the highest melee base dmg for non dlc creatures?  They have big AoE, huge knockback, range(you can fly out of reach and peck), and a long ToE(time of effect, the window their attack does dmg lasts the whole animation).  Ive killed rex with my quetz in the past without taking any dmg because of the huge knockback and ToE.

Checked and yes, quetz have the highest base dmg, ptera+tapa have 18, argent 25, quetz 32

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58 minutes ago, mattj said:

Seems like you’d wanna show off and protect such a rare Dino. I would pump it with just HP and Stamina and use it as a base personally.

I use burners as farmers and war Quetzals. But that seems like such a waste on a tek.

Yea, now that I have a mating pair, I'm going to crank out some beastly offspring to put to work. The mating pair will relax comfortably in the heart of my massive fortress. 

As an experiment, I'm going to crank out, imprint and level one baby Tek Quetzal just to see how powerful it could be as a fighter. I'm thinking something like the Terminator movie's 'Hunter Killer' drones. :)

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